May, 2014 archive
The Second Deconstruction 0
When I was a young ‘un, back in the olden days, there were not cops in schools. Now, they are a fixture and they show that the school to prison pipeline is a real thing. Let the ACLU explain:
This extreme approach – which includes the overly strict enforcement of zero-tolerance policies, the use of suspension and expulsion at younger and younger ages, and increasingly turning students over to law enforcement – has resulted in a skyrocketing number of students receiving harsh punishments. Much of the increase is the result of heightened concerns over school violence, even though research shows there is no safer place for kids than in school. Another factor is the persistent misperception that students of color are inherently more dangerous.
When kindergärtners are routinely suspended, the system is broken.
Crash 0
On my way to DL tonight, I was caught in a traffic jam. TV news crews were on hand, with cute ladies and trim men talking into microphones in front of disheveled camera men (and they were all men).
It was the backwash of this.
Now I know why those TV news crews were there. It was not your routine “driver runs into crepe myrtle tree in the median strip” accident.
Afterthought:
I am not a fan of crepe myrtle trees.
When I was in college, one of my summer jobs was cutting grass along the highways for the Department of Highways. When you are cutting grass with a sickle bar mounted on a tractor, crepe myrtles, though they may be pretty, can be quite annoying.
Break Time 0
Off to drink liberally.
“We Reached Peak Magnetic Yellow Ribbon Time in 2003” 0
The Veterans Administration has been broken for a long, long time, even as Republican wars created more and more veterans needing care. Rachel Maddow explains:
Wars and Mongers of War 0
In the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Dan Simpson counsels against heeding the war fever currently being spread by Republicans. A nugget:
The first of these is a deep-rooted sense of our own best interests. Most Americans understand fairly well that we don’t want our sons and daughters in miserable places such as Nigeria, South Sudan, Syria and Ukraine standing at risk to their lives between people who want to fight over something that has nothing to do with us.
The second is that we as Americans have a very short attention span. Notice, for example, that Syria, an intense passion not long ago, is now sloping off into channel-changing obscurity.
(snip)
The third grace that may save us from self-destruction through meddling in other people’s affairs is a decent sense of what is really important to us.
Do please read the rest.
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
Back above 300k.
(snip)
The four-week moving average, a less volatile measure than the weekly figures, fell to 322,500 last week from 323,500.
Total Beneficiaries(snip)
The number of people continuing to receive jobless benefits dropped by 13,000 to 2.65 million in the week ended May 10.
Bloomberg’s headline was Jobless Claims in U.S. Increased More Than Forecast. Given the track record of their forecasters, that their forecasters got it wrong is hardly headline news.
Wall Street’s fascination with “forecasters” is a blight and a plague. If a company makes a profit, but it’s not as great as “forecasters” forecast, the stock tanks. If that same company makes a loss, but the loss is less than the forecasters forecast, the stock soars. This shows, more than anything else, that “high finance” is mostly three card monte in three-piece suits.
In what other area outside of “reality” television is the work of what are essentially mediums minus turbans taken so seriously?
Primary Screams 0
Reg Henry, registered Republican, is fed up with primary elections in Pennsyltucky.
A nugget:
Guess what? You are right. But you can rest easy, because in this primary Republican voters in my area had almost nothing to vote for: a governor opposed by a write-in candidate, some unopposed lawmakers, some committee people. To someone like me who thinks of voting as an act of civic communion, it was like going to the altar and finding that they had run out of bread.
I don’t agree with him–primaries are better than conventions, as the Virgina Republican Party learned to its sorrow, but he has a larger point–too often, because of gerrymandering and voter apathy, primaries don’t matter.
Here in Virginia, we have elections every year. Statewide offices come up for election in off-years (it’s nothing more than an attempt to reduce turnout in off-year elections, but it’s unlikely to change). Nevertheless, it’s easy to find Virginia voters who aren’t aware that elections are taking place in odd-numbered years, even though it’s hard to see how they could be so far inside their personal bubbles as to miss them.
Voting is not a right. It’s duty.
If you do not vote, and vote every time you can, you deserve what you get.
Unfortunately, you take me right along with you, and I should not have to pay the price for your dereliction.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Balloon Juice has more news of the ammosexuals.
You do realize, of course, that these people are nuts.
Drinking Liberally Virginia Beach Tomorrow 0
Fun and fellowship for liberals. Join us and talk about anything in a relaxed atmosphere.
When: Thursday, May 22nd, 6 p.
Where:
Croc’s 19 Street Bistro
620 19th Street (Map)
More here.
Google’s Goggles 0
Der Spiegel takes a look at the recent EU Court’s decision requiring search engines to remove links in certain circumstances so as to preserve the “right to be forgotten.” I commend it to your attention.
A nugget:
I Know You Are, But What Am I? 0
From the people who gave you the NSA.
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, you can’t make this stuff up. The chutzpah staggers one.
Remember, when you point your finger, all four other fingers point back at you.
Our “intelligence community” is an oxymoron (emphasis on “moron”).